I'm a computer newbie but I'd like to be able to create a site where users can upload video files and then play them in flash or html5 (just like youtube). I've looked online for info on how to create youtube clones but there are so many conflicting bits of information that I'm really confused. I'd really appreciate it if someone can walk me through what I need and what I need to do to get it up and running. I already have a host with unlimited bandwidth and storage (bluehost), though I don't expect super high traffic or anything.

What I'd like my site to have:- ability for users to create and save their own profile- ability to upload video- ability to automatically convert video to flash or html5 compatible format for streaming- creation of channels and playlists.

Any kind of info is appreciated. I'm willing to put in the time and effort to learn how to do this.Thanks to everyone!

Do you know any programming or scripting languages? The fact that this question has been placed in the design section when design is probably 5% of problem suggests not but I thought I would ask. Assuming the later your best bet would be to get familiar with on of the various service-side technologies such as; Rails, Django, PHP, .NET or Java. Understanding one of those will be the ingredients to building a site with the desired functionality.

Not only extensive programming skills but also deep pockets. Video streaming is a hardware taxing service, you are going to need several high performance servers, for the front end, the backend, and for the streaming. Converting video from one format to another is going to be the most taxing thus it will need its own series of servers. Your current hosting package is not going to be enough.

You might be able to use one of the several cloud services out their, from Amazon to Microsoft Azure. Both of which would allow you to scale your computation needs dynamically when necessary to encode and stream videos while also taking advantage of their CDNs. But you will still pay a hefty price, tho you only pay for what you use...

Anyways, you should only under take this if you have the finical backing.